David Opatoshu - Biography

David Opatoshu (January 30, 1918 – April 30, 1996) was an American film, stage and television actor. He was born as David Opatovsky in New York City, where he was reared and educated. His father was the Yiddish writer, Joseph Opatoshu.

Television

His career in television began in 1952 and lasted through the 1980s. In the fall of 1953, he played a theatric agent to Ezio Pinza in the NBC situation comedy Bonino. Other costars were Mary Wickes, Chet Allen, and Van Dyke Parks. The series focused upon an Italian American opera singer trying to rear his six children after having been widowed.

He played Anan 7 in the original Star Trek series episode "A Taste of Armageddon", and also co-starred with James Doohan in an episode of The Twilight Zone, entitled "Valley of the Shadow". He guest-starred in the 1964 The Outer Limits episode "A Feasibility Study", also in the 1969 season 3 Ironside episode "L'Chayim", and in the 1981 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Time of the Hawk". On October 30, 1989, Mr. Opatashu guest-starred as the Tenctonese ex-slave 'Paul Revere', in the episode "Night of the Screams", of the television series Alien Nation. In 1991 he won an Emmy for his guest appearance in the episode "A Prayer for the Goldsteins" of the ABC series Gabriel's Fire.

Films

His first film, The Light Ahead (1939), directed by Henry Felt and Edgar G. Ulmer, is notable for being entirely in Yiddish. Opatoshu gave memorable performances as the savvy homicide detective, Sgt. Ben Miller, in the definitive film noir, The Naked City (1948), produced by Mark Hellinger, and as the Irgun terrorist leader (and Ari Ben Canaan's estranged uncle) in Otto Preminger's 1960 film Exodus.

Stage

He appeared on Broadway in The Wall in 1960, and Bravo Giovanni in 1962, and others.

Screenwriter

David Opatoshu also wrote the screenplay for the film Romance of a Horsethief (1971), based on a novel by his father, Joseph Opatoshu.

Family

David Opatoshu was survived by his wife, Lillian Weinberg, a psychiatric social worker, whom he married on June 10, 1941. They had one child together, a son, Danny. Lillian died on May 13, 2000.

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